New York: Indian-American IIT graduate Haresh Gurnani has been named the new dean of the College of Business at Stony Brook University in New York, and will take on the new role beginning July 2023. Gurnani currently serves as area chair of Business Analytics, Operations Management, Marketing and Economics areas in the School of Business at Wake Forest University.

He is a Thomas H. Davis Chair in the school, program director of the Mathematical Business Program, and serves on the university’s committee on Network for Inclusive Leadership and Engagement. “Haresh is ideally suited to serve as our next leader, bringing a key set of experiences and skills essential for advancing the upward trajectory of the College, including management of enrollment growth, building industry partnerships, and fundraising,” said Carl Lejuez, provost and executive vice president at Stony Brook.

Gurnani’s research interests are in operations and supply chain analytics, retail distribution channel design and marketing, healthcare operations and marketing, sharing economy, and sustainability. He succeeds Manny London, who has served as dean of the College for the last decade.

“Business education plays a key role in providing valuable opportunities for socio-economic mobility and entrepreneurial growth for students. With its rich heritage for inter-college collaborations, I am excited to work with colleagues to identify and develop new partnerships and programs that would continue to make Stony Brook a destination of choice for students in New York,” Gurnani said in a university statement.

As area chair in the School of Business at Wake Forest, Gurnani has overseen strategic planning, new program development, faculty recruitment and development, research strategy, and accreditation review. Under his leadership of the Mathematical Business Program, enrollment has grown 80 per cent and new partnerships have been developed with industry to identify company projects, the university statement read.

Armed with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, and a master’s and doctorate in operations research from Carnegie Mellon University, Gurnani has also held faculty positions at University of Miami and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

With more than 24,000 students, more than 2,800 faculty members, Stony Brook University is ranked among the top 35 public universities by Forbes and one of the top 80 universities in the nation by the US News & World Report Best Colleges listing.